Britain's Got Talent star Kojo Anim comes to East London with first stand-up tour

The 39-year-old father-of-one was Simon Cowell’s golden buzzer act on last year’s series of the ITV talent show.

Now the comedian is heading out across the country with his new tour, which comes to Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch on Sunday, February 9.

Born in Ghana, Kojo moved to London as a child and grew up in Hackney – and he’ll be returning to home territory for the final show of the tour at Hackney Empire on Friday, March 20.

Here, we chat to him as he prepares to make the world laugh, sharing his funny observations and stories about life, parenthood and family.

How has life been since the final of Britain’s Got Talent?

Life is great – it’s all kicking off since the show, I mean… I’m going on a UK tour! I went up to the last week of the Edinburgh Festival, to do some shows, spread the word and mingle, which was brilliant, and I’ve had a sold-out try-out show in London too. So it’s all coming together ready for the tour.

You were ‘discovered’ on Britain’s Got Talent, but you’d already been working on the comedy circuit for 20 years.

So, yes, I’ve been doing comedy 20 years, and now I’m the newcomer – thanks to BGT.

I was doing talent shows at university, and had the chance to go to comedy school, so borrowed £150 from my Aunty Sandra – I’ve more than paid her back now. After that I did a lot of university comedy gigs and built up a fan base.

From that, I was able to set up Kojo’s Comedy Fun House, which ran every Sunday for eight years, with 300 people queueing up outside each week.

What really made it big though was when David Chapelle was in town and heard about the club. He just came down and performed. ‘Going viral’ wasn’t even a thing at the time, but that’s kind of what happened. It was the first show he’d done after going away following his big success so everyone was talking about it, it was huge on YouTube and was a real international moment to see him back on stage.

People started talking about the Fun House and I was hearing from American comedians over in the UK who wanted to come down. I was just a young comedian wanting to express myself there, and all this came from that small place.

What made you audition for BGT?

I had been going through a bad period financially. I’d had my son, and that made it more pressurised to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life…

I was approached by BGT, they’d seen some videos online – although I didn’t actually know it was BGT at the time. I was told the producers had loved the videos and they were dying to get me on the show, so I decided ‘Why not?’

Simon Cowell famously hates comedians on BGT, but he gave you his golden buzzer. How did that feel?

My plan was that I wanted Amanda Holden and David Walliams’ approval. I’d actually written Simon Cowell off, as I knew I only needed three of them.

It was the very first day of filming, and – to add to the madness – Simon had never pressed his golden buzzer on day one. So when it happened, everyone was so shocked; day one and a comedian!

The reaction was so gratifying. It told me ‘I can do this’. I had proven myself and removed the doubt about myself. After that, I knew I was good enough.

How do you feel ahead of the tour?

Touring nationally is a dream come true and the hard work is happening. There’s definitely going to be a look at fatherhood – looking at what goes through a man’s mind as a new dad.

I’m looking forward to touring, going to places I’ve never been to – like Swindon, Malvern, New Brighton, places in Wales I can’t even spell…

In January, I will be 40. I told my fiancée Tiff, I believe the best years of my life will be my 40s – and it’s definitely looking that way. Let’s have it!

Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, RM11 1QT, Sunday, February 9, 7.30pm; and Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, E8 1EJ, Friday, March 20, 7.30pm. Details: cuffeandtaylor.com